AI medical startup claims of heart diagnosis within six minutes

As technology takes giant leaps, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) medical startup Tricog claims of offering speedy diagnosis for heart patients based on their electrocardiography (ECG) data and that too within six minutes.

This development will allow people suffering from a heart condition to soon get a specialist’s help. 

An ECG machine with a Tricog add-on encrypts a patient's results and sends them to a cloud, where a machine-learning algorithm interprets the data and forms a diagnosis.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) medical startup Tricog claims of offering speedy diagnosis for heart patients based on their electrocardiography (ECG) data and that too within six minutes. Photo courtesy: Tricog
Artificial Intelligence (AI) medical startup Tricog claims of offering speedy diagnosis for heart patients based on their electrocardiography (ECG) data and that too within six minutes. Photo courtesy: Tricog

There is a team of 20 doctors who work round the clock at  centrally located hub to verify the data. The closest hospital is alerted so doctors can be on standby to provide treatment.

Tricog recently raised some USD4 million from investors including Japanese based venture capital company The University of Tokyo Edge Capital.

A team of medical experts and technologists founded Tricog with an aim to help preserve people’s lives through technology. Its solution involves installing a cloud connected ECG machine in primary and secondary care medical centres — clinics, polyclinics, nursing homes and hospitals.

Dr Charit Bhograj, co-founder of Tricog and cardiologist. Photo courtesy: Tricog
Dr Charit Bhograj, co-founder of Tricog and cardiologist. Photo courtesy: Tricog

The moment a doctor takes a patient’s ECG, the information is sent to their centrally located hub where medical experts are available 24×7. So every time an ECG is performed with Tricog’s cloud-connected ECG device, a Tricog specialist interprets it and sends the report through an SMS as well as a message on their mobile app.

Dr Charit Bhograj, co-founder of Tricog and cardiologist, said, “The service is available in 12 countries including India, Indonesia and Malaysia, and has diagnosed 1.5 million patients over the past years.”

Tricog is in talks to partner a Singapore maker of ECG machines, allowing its AI system to be integrated with these machines and used in the island.

Bhograj established Tricog in 2014 with a group of co-founders including a former researcher at IBM and a former member of Texas Instruments' self-driving technology development team.